TAMUK hosts first drag show
Seats in Jones Auditorium filled up one by one as students munched on popcorn and pickles as they anticipated the start of Texas A&M University – Kingsville’s (TAMUK) very first Drag Show on Aug. 26.
Students who attended So You Think You Can Drag were able to watch performances of five drag queens and one drag king.
The start of the show as well as the audience’s Master of Ceremonies, NYX @ NITE, is a Drag Queen who got her start through her love of theatre arts. In 2014 when she took her first stage makeup class, she fell in love with the art of illusion and the rest is history.
After moving to San Angelo, she had a hand in maintaining the annual drag show at Angelo State that brought many headliners from RuPaul’s Drag Race such as Shangela, Morgan McMichaels, Denali, and Mo Heart. Shortly after in 2019, NYX was asked to perform in her first show.
Since then, she has performed in numerous venues and private events in San Angelo and has traveled to perform in cities such as Lubbock, Abilene, Odessa and Houston.
The next performer, Adrianna Da Grande, is a current student at TAMUK, studying Agribusiness: Ranch Management and Architectural Engineering and is minoring in Business. She had her first opportunity to shine back in April of this year, for a charity event hosted by fraternities and sororities on campus.
“When [my] friends told me about So You Think You Can Drag over the summer, [I] decided [I] was ready and jumped on this with precision and full force to make it perfect,” Grande said. “[I] always want the crowd to feel special and pumped up for each performance, because even though it takes a lot of energy, it is so worth it to see their faces at the end.”
While this was Grande’s first time doing a drag performance, So You Think You Can Drag would not have been such a hit without Campus Activities Coordinator Julianne Gomez and Multicultural Coordinator Gabrielle Vaughn, who both work for Student Engagement and Campus Life.
“We want to be more intentional about being inclusive on campus for all of our students.” Vaughn said. “We only had one student [who signed up for the show], but even if just one student decided they wanted to display their love to drag, that was OK with me!”
Students in the audience had nothing but positive feedback regarding the other queens and king.
“I honestly loved [the show],” Animal Science major Katherine Valtierra said. “There were parts where I cried out of happiness because it was just so amazing. I think it would be amazing [if TAMUK] hosted another drag show, mostly because this was my first one and I just had a wonderful experience.”
The rest of the show featured performances by Kitana Sánchez, Kalico Kandy, Frankie and Arson Nick.
Sánchez is a transgender, Latina born woman raised in Del Rio. She moved to Corpus Christi and graduated with her BA in English in 2010 at TAMUCC.
She has competed in pageants, winning Miss Corpus Christi Newcomer USofA 2010, Miss Gay Corpus Christi 2014, Queen of Fantasia 2016, Miss Gay Texas Universe 2021 and Miss Gay Universe 2022. She is a show girl extraordinaire who just loves to entertain audiences and hopes to inspire people with her performances.
She is also Vice President of CCLGBT, co-facilitator of the Coastal Bend Trans Alliance established 2016, Ambassador for the #behuman Campaign, writer of Viva la Trans, and a public speaker/advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community. She hopes one day that equality for LGBTQIA+ people will be implemented.
Kalico Kandy is a graduate of TAMUK and she earned a degree in Music Education. She is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and comedian, all of which she combines into her drag.
She is currently a graduate student in Clinical Mental Health and is an advocate for the benefits of mental health and all things the color pink.
The last performance of the night was Kingsville’s very own “The One and Only King of Kingsville,” Arson Nick, who is currently Coastal Bend’s Premier Drag King Entertainer. From confetti cannons to being buried alive on stage, he is truly a wild card who loves keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. Arson is best known for their eccentric style tear-away pants, and their motto, “do it scared.”
With the success of TAMUK’s first drag show, Student Engagement and Campus Life plans to host this event next year and years that follow.